Penny White, Joe Riley and I are on the road again this Fall for the 2009 Justice Programs seminars. This two-day, 15-hour is designed for Tennessee lawyers who do civil litigation and who are looking for substantive continuing legal education that will help them better serve their clients.
We will be in Nashville November 19 and 20, Chattanooga on December 3 and 4, Memphis on December 10 and 11, and Knoxville on December 17 and 18.
Here are the topics we are offering this year:
Nashville trial lawyer John T. Conners, Jr. died yesterday in his home in West Meade. He would have turned 90 in March 2010. He was a name-partner at Boult Cummings Conners & Berry in Nashville and practiced law over 50 years..
To say that John Conners was an excellent lawyer is an understatement. He was a living legend in the Bar at the time I was admitted in 1981 and joined his firm. He remains a legend to this day.
I believe the key to Mr. Conners’ success in the courtroom was his preparation. He left no stone unturned. He did not sit in his office and practice law – he investigated his own cases and was unafraid to get his shoes dirty. He prepared hours and hours for every deposition. He would write out his opening statements and closing arguments three, four, or five times, revising and improving it each time. And then he would deliver it – from memory – flawlessly. His directs and crosses were done the same way – revision after revision after revision – and then conducted from memory. He dominated the courtroom.
Last week I filed a post on the new members of the Judicial Selection Commission. Today, the appointees to the Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission were announced.
The Judicial Performance Evaluation Commission, which replaces the Judicial Evaluation Commission, evaluates the performance of the appellate level judges who are up for re-election. Prior to the election, the commission will complete a thorough review of each judge’s performance and make a recommendation to either retain or replace each judge. These recommendations are placed in newspapers throughout the state to inform voters prior to the election.
The appointees:
The September 2009 edition of the Tennessee Trial Law Report is in the mail.
The lazy days of summer are upon us – this edition includes a summary of just 10 different cases addressing various aspects of the law of torts, civil procedure, evidence and trial as decided by Tennessee appellate courts between July 15 and August 15, 2009. (This is about 1/2 of the normal volume of decisions released in a given month.) The newsletter totals 34 pages, including 16 pages containing the full-text (in addition to our summary) of the most important opinions issued last month.
The newsletter also includes (a) my continuing series on The Law of Trial (this month’s article is “Opening Statements and Closing Arguments;” and (b) a summary of the status of 12 cases of interest to tort lawyers that are pending before the Supreme Court of Tennessee.
The new members of the Tennessee Judicial Selection Commission have been announced.
Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey appointed the following people:
Speaker Williams appointed the following people:
The speakers jointly appointed Verna Anne Wyatt of Nashville, the ED of the group You Have the Power, a crime victims advocacy group.
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Last week I received a letter informing me that I had been selected for inclusion in the 2010 edition of Best Lawyers in America. I have been fortunate to have been included among this distinguished group of lawyers since 1993.
This year I have been listed in the specialties of Bet-the-Company Litigation, Commercial Litigation, Medical Malpractice Law, Personal Injury Litigation, and Product Liability Litigation.
Best Lawyers surveys lawyers to determine who should be included in the publication. Thus, I fully realize that I would not be included in this book if it were not for the votes I received from my fellow lawyers, many of whom deserve equal or even greater recognition for their service to their clients and to the profession. I also realize that I would not be a part of this publication without the wonderful support I receive from every member of our firm, each of whom works diligently every day to serve our clients.
Here is Post 7 of recent changes to statutory law in Tennessee that I think will be of interest to tort lawyers. As I have said in the last six posts, you can read about additional changes in the law under the Legislation 2009 category.
Public Chapter 206 changed the Governmental Tort Liability Act to include Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 29-20-101 et seq, to specifically include "community action agenc[ies] [and] nonprofit corporation[s] which administer[] the Head Start or Community Service Block Grant programs" as entities covered under the Act.
I believe that this legislation is a result of a case our firm handled against such an organization in East Tennessee earlier this year. We argued that the entity was not covered by the Act (and therefore the damage caps did not apply) because the type of entity was not specifically mentioned in the Act. I predicated at the time we identified the issue that a legislative change would be forthcoming, and this is it.
This is the fifth in a series of posts about changes in Tennessee statutory law of interest to tort lawyers. For other changes click on the Legislation 2009 category.
Tennessee has a "Ski Area Safety and Liability Act" codified at TCA Section 68-114-101 et seq. Public Chapter 85 changes the definition of skier to include "any person present in a ski area for the purpose of engaging in the sport of skiing, Nordic, freestyle, or other types of ski jumping, and who is using skis, or a sled, tube, or snowboard." It also increases the minimum insurance limits for each "ski area operator responsible for a passenger tramway" to $1,000,000.
Click on the link to read Public Acts, 2009 Public Chapter 85.
As you would expect, the Tennessee General Assembly is not particularly fond of drug dealers. But did you know that the General Assemby had passed what they call the "Drug Dealer Liability Act?"
The Act, codified at TCA 29-38-101 et seq, permits the recovery of damages caused by drug dealers. We just used this Act to add an additional cause of action against a man who we alleged engaged in inappropriate conduct with two pre-teen females and from time to time used a drug to help accomplish his actions. The use of the Act was important because (a) it gave us a claim for attorney’s fees and (b) it provides for prejudgment attachment of assets of the defendant.
The Act contains several sections, but this is the section that creates the cause of action, identifies who can file suit, and states what damages can be recovered.
Penny White, Joe Riley and I are on the road again this Fall for the 2009 Justice Programs seminars. This two-day, 15-hour is designed for Tennessee lawyers who do civil litigation.
We will be in Nashville November 19 and 20, Chattanooga on December 3 and 4, Memphis on December 10 and 11, and Knoxville on December 17 and 18.
Learn more about the program here. Register here.
Day on Torts